Kelly O¿Bryan, of Vernon Hills, right, is awarded Miss Congeniality by 2014 Queen Julia Bauschke, at the Miss Lake County Fair pageant in the Expo Hall at the fairgrounds in Grayslake. O¿Bryan then finished first runner-up overall.

Kelly O¿Bryan, of Vernon Hills, right, is awarded Miss Congeniality by 2014 Queen Julia Bauschke, at the Miss Lake County Fair pageant in the Expo Hall at the fairgrounds in Grayslake. O¿Bryan then finished first runner-up overall. (Denys Bucksten / Lake County News-Sun)

Beauties and motorized beasts were in the spotlight on opening night at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Grayslake, where Bethani Jacobsen of Wauconda was crowned Lake County Fair pageant queen inside the Expo Hall while snarling motorbikes thrilled hundreds at a motocross competition held just outside.

The Welcome Wagon company was once known for its "hostesses," who visited new homeowners to welcome them to the community they'd chosen, introduce them to the area and provide offers from local businesses.

Local sports

Glenview Park Golf Club in Glenview has reopened after an extensive, year-long renovation, and hosts John Borneman and Matt Harness were on site to check out the results. They offer a review of the new layout and talk with lead architect Rick Jacobson, who has worked on golf courses all over...

Located on Milwaukee Avenue in Lincolnshire, just across from the Regal Cinemas, the giant pink castle is a hard-to-miss local symbol along a busy stretch of road amid numerous corporations and chain restaurants.

When Scott Rice's uncle brought him to what is now the Vernon Hills-based Cohen Brothers Training Centers, operated by brothers Irwin and Steve Cohen in 1982, Rice became a national champion one year later.

Longtime Chicago Sun-Times golf writer Herb Gould welcomes the Teeing Off podcast into his home to recap the British Open and talk about his experiences playing golf in Ireland and Scotland (including the time he had to let a certain world's No. 1 golfer play through). Later, the guys talk...

A Sept. 21 hearing was set Monday on a petition for a new trial for Melissa Calusinski, who is serving a 31-year sentence after being convicted of murder in the death of a child at a Lincolnshire day care center.

A former North Chicago School Board member was sentenced Tuesday to two and a half years in federal prison for receiving at least $566,000 in kickbacks from co-defendants who controlled transportation companies that received more than $21 million in student bus contracts for nearly a decade.